


Black Heart

by Jasemine98



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Falling In Love, Hurt/Comfort, Killing, Love Confessions, Rough Sex, Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 06:13:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26847214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jasemine98/pseuds/Jasemine98
Summary: Jhene has never been the one to ever consider herself a leader,  until she had not choice but to do so after a big hole in the sky changed her whole life. She never asked to be in charge of anyone, nor was she expecting to lose control in the process.





	Black Heart

**Author's Note:**

> My first Dragon Age story, let me know what you think.

I was an orphan, a bastard, and anything else the people of the passing towns found in their minds to call me. Apparently my mom was a Human and my father was a Quanari who ran away from his responsibility in the Qun. He was declared Tal-Vashoth before attempting the lead a normal life among the townspeople. He never stayed anywhere too long until he'd met her mother who was the beginning of the end of him. Maybe that was his fault, his mistake, remaining with someone who was just as normal as those around them. But he saw her as the most amazing, cultivating woman he'd ever met. She'd taught him how to love and fit in with commoners. Little did he know, the Qun was hot on his trail after he'd settled down. After I was born, only a few years into their lives together, they were both killed as if their lives were meaningless. I had a faint memory of them once upon a time, but the older I got, the less I could remember their faces. I kept their names engraved into my mind though, Tamaari, my father, and Egelina, my mother. Maybe I suppressed the memory of them to make my life easier. I try not to dwell on it since it just makes me angry to think about it. I was happy that I was never born part of the Qun.

I made my through the town, heading up towards the mountain to collect some raw material to craft with. A lot of blacksmiths and armorers were looking to buy material to create the new metal that were supposed to be harder than Valyrian steel. I don't really understand what makes something harder than damn dragon bone, but whatever it was would make me a pretty coin. I scrubbed through the dirt of the barren landscape, desperately searching for something. I didn't want the tiring travel all the way up the steep mountain to be in vain. It would have been a waste of my day altogether. It had been a few hours of searching when I finally saw the reflection of something under her hand.

"Finally." I exclaimed. I used my pic and hammer to get around the metal, not wanting to destroy the value of it. I never really understood the obsession most of my trader had with pure, untainted metals when they would liquify and destroy their purity for coin at any given time. Although I had to admit their work was exquisite when I allowed myself to fancy a glance at their shop. I was frustrated with the bad luck I was having with getting the metal loose from the deep dirt. "Ugh!" I grumbled, taking a seat in the dirt beside my work. I took a sip of water from my satchel on my side that I had refilled just before making my journey up the mountain. This was when all hell broke loose. I mean that literally. The ground began to shake underneath my feet. At first I thought that maybe I was dehydrated from all the effort it had taken to get the metal even partially removed from the gravel. Then I heard a loud boom from the sky that began casting a greenish slow as I went flying. I fell hard, still trying to comprehend before everything went black.

I woke up, dizzy, lightheaded, confused. What the hell had happened? "Ow!" I yelled, feeling a tight and horrendous pain in the palm of my hand. The boulders that were perched on my chest made it hard to breath. I noticed then that there was a green cast of light coming from it. I moved it closer to admire it before yelling out in pain once again.

"There's someone here!" I heard someone state before a short hair woman with strong features and even stronger armor ran towards her. "Maker save us." The woman said as she the glowing light in my hand.

"Help me!" I begged as if she knew what the hell was going on anymore than I did.

"I - I doubt we can do anything for you besides cut it off." Suddenly the cast in the sky calmed but didn't go away, my hand followed the energy from it. "It is effecting the rift in the sky." The woman said, looking towards the sky then back at my hand. "You, come with me." She stated before pulling me up from the debris with the help in the small army around her. I coughed as the Boulder were lifted off of me finally, taking a deep breath to feel my deflated lungs. "Follow me." The woman stated.

"No!" I pulled away from her grasp before backing into another armored person. I didn't understand what I was supposed to do. This isn't how I exactly expected my day to go. I had a plan to get some metal and head out to trade, but now this shit was in the sky and somehow I was supposed to fix it. "I am not going close to that thing." I debated. "I am not the one you want. I'm a normal person, not made for any of this shit. I was just scraping metals for trade and now this damn shit is inside my hand!" I could feel the energy tingling again. "I'm not who you want." I repeated again as if it would make her thing twice.

"Well you're the only one who may able to close that thing. Don't you see the effect that it has on the rift." I looked down at my hand again.

"But you don't know that for sure -" I somewhat asked.

"No, but it's worth trying to save the lives of these people."

"I'm expected to end mine!" I stepped back again.

"You can give yourself for the greater good of this world. Please!" She said holding out her hand to me to take it. I hesitated, knowing that she was telling the truth even though I didn't want to heard it. I was only one, unimportant person in the world. Someone that won't be remembered or forgotten if I did give my life up. At least it would be for a good reason. I sighed before taking her hand and allowing her to pull me along with her again. We headed up towards the eyes of the rifts, stopped by the sudden sights of people, no creatures, coming from the rifts itself.

"What in the actually hell?" I whispered to myself. I didn't realize it at the time but this was the beginning of a whole new chapter of my life. I looked at my hand once again, hoping for the best but ready to face the worst of it.

"That is what were trying to figure out?" I heard a man's voice stated. I looked to see a small and very short man, a dwarf, speaking to them after shooting and killing one of the creatures. "I could use a little help." He stated after seeing more of them being created. The woman grew her sword and headed towards the action. I scanned around, seeing a weapon on the ground from a fallen vessel that looked to have died fighting.

"I'm sorry but I need this." I pulled the weapon from the cold hand of the dead, lifting it. I knew how to use a weapon just as well as anyone. Many times I had to hold my own when I was traveling to different places for trade. There were people who sat waiting for just that, a lonely trader who can't fight back against them. She fought back even if she didn't kill them, she made sure to hurt them really badly. I slashed wildly at the creature that was going for the dwarf, unknowingly to him. The head of the creature came clean off before disappearing and the particles going back towards the green in the sky. It was fucking creepy. Even so, I held my own until we had killed all the creatures before us.

"You handle a sword well." She heard the short hair woman state. "I haven't introduced myself though all this chaos before us." I pulled my sword from the creature that I had stabbed in the chest before turning to her. "I'm Cassandra. And this dwarf is Varric."

"Nice to meet you." Varric said with a grin on this face.

"I'm Jhene." I stated, propping the sword up so I could somewhat lean on it.

"Don't get too comfortable. We have a lot more there that came from." Varric pointed to the sky where more of those creatures were seemingly coming from.

"Let's get moving." Cassandra began to walk up the mountain. I looked around to the corpses that were surrounding the area. I felt somewhat selfish for my earlier comment. If I could stop this thing it would prevent more people from ending up like that. I noticed a shield stocking from under one of them. I quickly went to it, pulling it from the corpse who wouldn't need it anymore.

"Sorry." I stated before following behind Cassandra. We made it to the root of the cause after battling a few more of those damned creatures. It was like they were steadily being morphed once we killed one. My hand began to burn, drawing agonizing scream from me.

"Fucking hell!" I tried to ignore the pain and keep fighting off the creature who were beginning to become too much for the three of us to battle.

"You need to do it now!" Casandra yelled from behind me. She gave me a stern looked, making me feel small somehow. I nodded before slashing at the last of the creatures that were nearest to me. I could feel my heart beating harder when I got close up to the green mass in front of me. I was afraid of what could happen to me. I was sure that I would die trying to save people I didn't even know. Even so, I lifted my hand to the green mass, closing my eyes to attempt to disconnect from what I was doing entirely. It didn't work of course. Pain shot through my hand and worked it way through my entire body. I could feel my bones quacking and my teeth chattering together. Then there was a explosion once again. I yelled out loud this time before I fell hard, knocking the air from my lungs then there was darkness once again.

I sat up quickly and an ache that I hadn't been expecting radiated down my chest and back. "Ow." I groaned before realizing it happen each time I took a breath. I noticed the soft and warm bed below me. I hadn't slept in an actual bed in years. I slept on gravel and hay most nights I spent traveling. It was on rare occasion, when I had a surplus of coin. I looked around the room before realizing that it seemed to be a setting for some highborn. That definitely wasn't more. I was an orphan with simply a name to stand for it, barely that. I stood, regarding the protest from my body. I had on clothing that were actually clean and refined. Someone must have been caring for me so how long had I been out! I slipped on the slipper that were seemly matching to the clothing that I wore before I opened the door. I had Cassandra's voice speaking before peeking out. She was speaking with a man that had on robes that were common for a member of the Chantry.

"She has the mark of demons in her hand. She could be responsible for all of these events that have been occurring." He said.

"I doubt it, Brother. She knows even less than I do. We could simply blame anyone for this but it won't help us come to understand how and why any of this unfolded."

"Perhaps she is hiding what she knows."

"That's unlikely -" Cassandra stated before noticing me. "You're awake." She walked towards me, still making me feel so small even though I was taller than her from my quanari genes.

"Yes. Where am I?" I asked, noticing her lowering and bowing to me. "Why are you -"

"You are the Herald of Andraste."

"The what?"

"You've given many of us hope for the future and that is much more than we've had these few days."

"Days?" I raised an eyebrow to that. "I've been here for days."

"Yes. We're in Haven."

"I thought I was dead."

"Far from it." Cassandra replied. She stood up before speaking again. "Come, we have business to attend to, Herald." I followed behind her as we walked, noticing the many people bowing to me.

"This is - unusual." I stated shyly. Not really enjoying the new title since I didn’t believe in much when it can to religion. I waved nodded to the people, not wanting them to think I wasn't grateful for them even thinking I was worth bowing for.

"They believe in you, as do I." I felt somewhat overwhelmed by her saying it.

"I'm just a -" I didn't even know what to say considering I wasn't even full human or quanari. I was lesser than any being alive. I suddenly felt self conscious about the small horns that were under my hair, hidden to the eyes. At this age, adult age, most full blooded quanari would ready have their horns. Before she could complete her sentence, someone interrupted them.

"Thank you for everything." She heard a woman say.

"You will be our salvation!" Another spoke.

It felt like it took forever to get out of sight of the people surrounding her. Once they were inside the large halls, it was much more quiet. There were still eyes that followed her but quiet still. Cullen stood there waiting for them at the far end of the hall.

"She lives." He joked when they made it.

"So it seems." Lilianna grinned. "We have a lot to discuss, staring with the small riffs that have been showing up all over Thedus." She heading inside the battle room, everyone following behind her. "A lot of people need us to close them."

"There's more?" I said in utter disbelief. What had I gotten myself into all of a sudden.

“Yes.” Cullen replied this time. “There have been areas popping up unexpectedly. I know it must be a lot to take in so suddenly, but we - as the Inquisition - have pledged to help these people from this - thing.” 

“I think I missed that pledge.” I said, indifferent about the whole ordeal. I was supposed to somehow save the whole world from stuff that we didn’t even know about. It made no sense to me personally. I was only one person - well not even that in the eyes of the law since I was of mixed blood. 

“Don’t be like that.” Cassandra stated, her face a grimace from your response. “These people need us.” 

“How am I supposed to close a big ass hole in the sky that I know absolutely nothing about. It’s not - I don’t know if I can do it honestly.”

“We WILL have you back the entire time.” Lilianna placed a hand on my shoulder in an attempt to comfort me. It didn’t work.

I was in charge of something I knew absolutely nothing about, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about because it was literally killing me. 

“I suppose we should get started then.” I sighed.


End file.
